Think of that: 1978! Let it settle in: 1978 and “keep Dearborn white.” This isn’t Reconstruction in the South, it’s 1978 in Yankee North we’re talking about.
A mother says to the orthodontist’s receptionist, “Look at my child’s mouth — it’s a disaster!”
No one pauses a second to think the mother doesn’t love her child, to contemplate how it is that the structure of the child’s mouth is even noticeable, that the mother should love her child just the way that child is. No, all of us would think of the mother as so loving her child that she wants it to have as full and enjoyable a life as she can afford. How is patriotism, loving your country, any different?
Wearing a flag lapel, or standing up for the National Anthem, or parroting the Pledge of Allegiance does not mean one is either a patriot, or one who loves his or her country. It is possible that one can do all three without truly giving the first damn about the country. Equally possible is that one might do all three and be a true patriot. But doing so does not necessitate the characterization. All it means for certain is that one is a follower of the herd. Dogs and gnats do as much. How one honors his or her country is as private a matter as how one expresses his or her religion, and the ‘how’ isn’t really anyone’s business.
Perhaps, like my sister, you may have known the wholly premature loss of a son or daughter, I cannot, you cannot, no one can “understand.” And if you’re white, like me, you DO NOT UNDERSTAND what being a non-white in America has been and is like. No you DO NOT! Condemning Pastor Wright for snippets taken wholly out of context, without regard or concern for the hundreds of years’ terrible legacy that just might be their context, is part and parcel of evil intent. Yeah . . . it is.
More than anything else, I am an American. I love my country more than life. Indeed, my country is my life, for without it I have none. I don’t understand, I haven’t even the first hint of a clue, what being black in white America might be like; what having a black heritage in a country that pines to recall only its white, European heritage is like; the all uphill challenges that must have been and yet remain too frequently daunting.
But, in every cell of my being, I believe Senator Obama knows. Do I speculate there is a mote of residual anger in him, as a product of his personal heritage? I suspect that. In fact, I hope there is. If there was not, then I’d be anxious over his emotional and psychological composition, and his ability to distinguish fact from fancy.
Nonetheless, the Illinois junior senator has confronted truth with courage and dignity, and postulates a cherished hope that the country he loves, every bit as much as do I, might at long last push into the background at least a little the rightful angers expressed openly by Pastor Wright, and those by frightened whites, so that we can address purposefully the task of governing on behalf of all the people in the country.
Barack Obama is not anyone’s savior. He doesn’t regard himself as one, and he cautions all of us not to lay that horrible mantle on his shoulders. Thing is, he knows his and his country’s past, and he knows it does not have to be its future. He’s wise in that. And this time, a truly wise, truthful, yet self-admittedly fault-riven candidate is precisely the person I want as my president, most assuredly my Commander in Chief.
— Ed Tubbs
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